Exodus predicted if NH gay bishop OK'd

Union Leader ^ | 7/01/03 | GIL BLISS

[kattracks]

AMHERST — If Episcopalians ratify the election of an openly gay bishop of New Hampshire at a national convention later this month, it will trigger a defection of many parishioners who prefer a more traditional style of worship, a visiting bishop of the Anglican Church in America said yesterday.

Bishop George Langberg already had scheduled visits to two of his churches in Amherst and Holderness when the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected the Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop, a move that has caused ripples in the Episcopalian community throughout the world.

Robinson’s election must be ratified at a Minneapolis convention late in July, and Langberg said part of his message to parishes he visits is that there is a church that keeps to traditional standards that homosexuals and women should not be in the clergy and the traditional language of the King James version of the Bible should be maintained.

“Some of the public has been asleep or sheltered and didn’t realize which way their church was heading until this election,” Langberg said yesterday. “Many have been drawn into this agenda and led into acceptance of it.”

What was initially tolerance of the gay lifestyle has transformed to acceptance, in violation of scripture in the Bible’s books of Leviticus and Romans, he said. Such tolerance and movement away from the Book of Common Prayer as a roadmap for worship render the Episcopal version of Christianity as a “manmade religion,” said Langberg.

As bishop of the Anglican Church in America, Langberg presides over seven New Hampshire parishes as well as others throughout New England and is the longtime rector of St. Elizabeth Church in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. On his weekend trip, he helped assist in services at St. Luke Church in Amherst and St. Michael Church in Holderness.

The Anglican Church in America began as an outcropping of a group of disenchanted clergy and laymen in 1977 called the Foundation of Concerned Churches and formally became a separate church in 1991.

“We’re already seeing substantial increases in attendance” since the election of Robinson, Langberg said. “We want to let those who are disenchanted know that we’re there.”

Langberg said the election of a man living a homosexual lifestyle with another man “has brought pain and embarrassment to the Episcopal Church.” Such a man “can’t serve as bishop of the whole church,” he said.

For homosexual church members, Langberg said his parishes offer “love and support to overcome temptation” but he admitted that “like an alcoholic, it’s tough to change.”

The movement away from the traditional prayer book, the roadmap for worship services, represents “the dumbing down of language” so as to be more accessible to the common man, he said. As a result, the traditional liturgy has been “stripped of beauty, dignity and the power of the word.”

Although Langberg said theology should be “adapted to the social climate, . . . the church is not the Kiwanis Club — it’s not man-made.”

“The Church’s role is to spread the good news of the Gospel, be true to our roots and not become part of the problem,” he said.

On the ordination of women, Langberg said that Christianity is “an apostolic ministry,” as Christ’s apostles were all men. “Over 2000 years, the clergy have been exclusively male,” he said, call the minister “an icon of Christ.”

Langberg said that straw polls indicate Bishop Robinson will be ratified at the Minneapolis convention and for those who don’t want to go along with that decision, “we’re here and available to them.”

“We have parishes in New Hampshire, and we’re setting up new ones,” he said.

For those who want to find out more about the Anglican Church in America, Langberg recommends visiting the church Web site at www.acahome.org.

[ArrogantBustard]

Married priests are a different animal... Though there are scriptural and practical reasons for the celibate priesthood, they are not as strong. And we do, even now, have (a few) married priests. One of them, a friend of my family, was just ordained two weeks ago in one of the Byzantine Catholic Churches. His teenage son served as an acolyte at his first Liturgy. And then there's the Anglican Usage, about which B-chan knows more than I.

[ArrogantBustard]

So I think a lot of the women who are so noisily screaming for ordination as priests are merely hungry for power and trying to destroy the dicta and the missions of the Catholic Church as it has existed for two millenia.

That's pretty much on target. Read Ungodly Rage, by Donna Steichen for details.

[ken5050]

Interesting description of your new church..In some ways, it's almost a throwback ( for want of a better word) to the Congregationalist churches in the original colonies....

[Glock22]

Not long ago my daughter's private Episcopal school announced that they were 'struggling' with the issue of homosexual dorm parents. They solicited our input, although I could see they'd aready decided. My response:



The Right Rev. *****
***** School


Dear Rev. ******: 19 November 2001

Although you have asked us to direct to a committee our comments about the housing of homosexual couples at the school, I make mine directly to you, as pastor of this flock, and the leader of the school. I have no objection, however, should you wish to circulate this among the committee.

The impression I receive from your letter is that the decision is already made. It is hard to view the soliciting of our comments as anything more than a sop to our feelings. Nonetheless, though my thoughts may not make a difference, I offer them.

Consensus is the instrument of Satan, not of Christ. Sin requires consensus; the first recorded seeking of consensus in the Bible is when Eve sought to involve Adam in her sin. I can recall no example of Christ seeking consensus among his followers; He Himself said that His message was divisive. He certainly made it clear that there was no compromise to be made. In this matter the school appears prepared to bow to the prevailing winds, making its moral judgments on a worldly rather than spiritual basis.

Since it has already been decided to accept the sin, there can be no point in agonizing over where and how you will allow it to be practiced. It is fatuous to agonize over what defines a "committed" relationship. You have already swallowed the camel, so why strain at gnats?

Fairness and equity are often invoked in discussing this issue. But how is it fair to treat sin with the same respect we accord to virtue? And how can it be honest pedagogy to fail to teach discernment?

While Jesus at no time tolerated the abuse of sinners, He made no bones about their sinfulness. He made His home among them because, as He put it, a physician's place is among the sick. When we pretend that wrong is right, we love the sin and not the sinner. That is no example to set for our children.When we treat sin as sin, we are being honest. When we treat sinners as sinners, we are following the Golden Rule, since we are all sinners.






19 November 2001 page 2

Academic excellence is not the only reason we chose St. Paul's School; we also sought an island in the moral swamp which our culture has become. We do not seek a Pollyanna place where unpleasant realities are denied and difficult questions are avoided. But we did hope for a place where respect would be accorded to the character it requires to stand up and call a thing by its name. If we do not have the truth, then we have nothing at all, and the simple truth is that homosexual activity, though not homosexuals themselves, is condemned by the Bible. This particular version of sexual sin is no more grievous than the many varieties of heterosexual sin, but it is folly to pretend that someone is not a sinner just because he is no more sinful than we. We do not celebrate or honor our sins, and there is no reason for us to celebrate anyone else's. The take-home lesson from the policy which I fear you are going to adopt is that moral equivocation is permissible. Such equivocation has a tendency to metastasize into other areas of life.

I hope the tone of this letter has not caused offense, though it probably will. It was C. S. Lewis, I believe, who pointed out that truth and virtue are usually plain and rude. It is sin which requires polish and poise; virtue often wears homespun, but corruption must wear makeup and perfume.

Sincerely,



Glock22

[friendly]

For many years I received communion at the hospital where I worked from an Episcipalian priest, believing him to be Catholic. The Anglicans and Episcopalians are welcome to join the Catholic Church.

[Gorzaloon]

For many years I received communion at the hospital where I worked from an Episcipalian priest, believing him to be Catholic. The Anglicans and Episcopalians are welcome to join the Catholic Church.

And at least, back when I went, anyway, the COE always welcomed Russian, Armenian, or Greek Orthodox, married them, etc.